10 Songs That Prove Sweden Is The Best At Making Pop Music

Sweden is a country famed for many things, including flat pack furniture, meat balls and Volvos. More importantly though, they’re well known for churning out huge pop hits. As Eurovision fever hits the world once again this week, Sweden’s brilliant entry from Robin Bengtsson (above) has got us thinking about how this country may just be the very best in the world at making pop music.

1) ABBA – ‘Waterloo’

It seems only right that we start with the legendary ABBA, who won Eurovision with ‘Waterloo’ back in 1974 and then went on to be one of the most successful bands of their time. Check out their winning performance above!

2) Mans Zelmerlow – ‘Heroes’

Sweden have won Eurovision an impressive six times, the most recent being just a few years ago in 2015. ‘Heroes’ stood out from the other entries thanks to its ridiculously catchy chorus, clever staging and story telling. We suppose the fact Mans is dreadfully good looking probably helped a little bit too.

3) Robyn – ‘Dancing On My Own’

Robyn entered the music industry way back in 1995 but it wasn’t until 10 years later that the whole world started to sit up and listen. The release of ‘Dancing On My Own’ in 2010 helped to make her a household name, giving her her first number one in Sweden and fourth top-ten hit in the UK. It is still seen as an iconic pop song today and has been covered many times (but the less said about *that* Callum Scott cover the better…)

4) Ace of Base ‘All That She Wants’

Ace of Base released four albums between 1992 and 2002 and have managed to rack up a huge 30 million music sales worldwide. ‘All That She Wants’ is arguably one of the band’s most infamous hits from their debut album. Unsurprisingly, it went straight to number one and still sounds epic today!

5) Tove Styrke ‘Say My Name’

Tove Styrke might be a new name to some of us over here, but after coming third in Swedish Idol in 2009 she has enjoyed huge success across the water. Her latest single ‘Say My Name’ has caught the attention of radio stations across the UK and she looks set to take the charts by storm soon. With brilliant pop songs like this up her sleeve, we welcome her with open arms!

6) Zara Larsson ‘Lush Life’

Zara Larsson is another brilliant star who emerged from a Swedish TV talent show. She won the 2008 season on Talang and since then has gone from strength to strength. Her first international album So Good was released in March 2017 and is full of kind of pop bangers you’d expect. ‘Lush Life’ and collaborations with MNEK and Tinie Tempah have helped secure her as a Swedish pop queen.

7) Avicii ‘Wake Me Up’

With the release of ‘Levels’ in 2011, Avicii was swiftly launched into the mainstream; topping the charts all over the world, being nominated for Grammy awards and racking up billions of views on YouTube. Although he has currently retired from playing live shows, he is expected to release his third album this year.

8) Swedish House Mafia ‘Don’t You Worry Child’ ft John Martin

Unsurprisingly, Swedish House Mafia are also from Sweden. It’s also not that surprising that an electronic dance trio comprised of DJs Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso could make such brilliant music. The trio are currently on hiatus, but we hope it’s not the last we hear from them.

9) Tove Lo ‘Habits (Stay High)’

You may know Tove Lo from her brilliant releases such as ‘Habits (Stay High)’ and ‘Talking Bodies’, but she’s also co-written songs for a number of other stars, including Ellie Goulding’s ‘Love Me Like You Do’ and Hilary Duff’s ‘Sparks’. In fact, her song writing talents were recognised by Max Martin and in 2014 she was signed to his songwriting collective Wolf Cousins.

10) Max Martin (Katy Perry) – ‘Hot N Cold’

Max Martin is a Swedish songwriter, producer and singer who first rose to fame in the 90’s after penning incredible pop hits including Britney’s ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ and Backstreet Boys’ ‘I Want It That Way’. Since then, he’s gone on to write and co-write 22 billboard top 100 number ones along with dozens of other huge pop songs that we all know and love. Pretty impressive, huh? The pop world would probably be a very different place without this guy. It’s so hard to pick just one song of his to put on this list, but we think we can all agree that ‘Hot N Cold’ is a Katy Perry classic. Thanks, Martin!